"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Drifting Along With The Tumbling Tumbleweed

Remember that song? {: I grew up listening to the Pioneers sing that Tumbleweed song and to Marty Robbins singing Dusty winds. Whoever wrote those songs must have passed through Texas at one time and got inspired! Even though spring has come to the farm and the

tough old mesquite trees are showing their best, the winds have blown up to 50 mph, whipping the dirt up from the fields to where you can't see 10 feet in front of you. Along with the stinging sand and howling wind, come the stickery tumbleweeds. They grow big and green in the summer in some of the driest land one would ever know. Even when they are green, they are prickly to touch. They then dry to a strong wood like form and the prickles turn into stickers along the stems. Some tumbleweeds can grow to 3 feet wide.

The harsh wind breaks them free and they all tumble along like a stampede of blind cattle. They tumble across miles of pasture and pile up against fences and houses.

One needs to wear gloves to remove them or they will get a hand full of dry stickers.

If you ever drive through Texas on a dusty windy day and you see the car in front of you swerving this way and that on the road......no, they haven't had too much to drink, they are dodging the tumbleweeds that run into their vehicle in all directions.

Seems like Texas is full of stickers and thorns. Even the horned toads have spikes all over and let's not forget the stinging scorpion and the rattlesnake.

You can't wear sandals if you take a walk around here.

As you can see the mesquite tree thorns grow quite long as well. However, there is still much beauty in this dry thorned land. One only has to look to find it.

Now you know why Salem is in such a deep sleep. He has been dodging tumbleweeds and thorns all day as the wind pushes him along. So now.......what kind of troublesome plant do you have in your surroundings? I would love to hear! Everyone have a blessed Easter holiday!

26 comments:

You describe things so well. Blind cattle! I love that one. When I was growing up, a giant tumbleweed hit our car head on. It broke the hood ornament clean off and then hit the windshield scaring us all to death. We thought it was going to go right through the windshield.Salem looks so warm and sweet and comfortable!

I do remember the tumbleweeds as we drove through Texas on our trip from east to west. Back when there were few to no freeways. We would travel a long 2 lane highway across the U.S. There were either tumbleweeds or snowdrifts on most of the highways. But really, to call them highways by today's standards is a laugh, sometimes the highways were dirt ways!But I date myself..in my defense, I was a little girl. But to see them tumbling across a vast and open land is memorable! You captured them well.

I remember having to sleep with a damp cloth over my nose when we were having dust storms and I remember my daddy going out and pulling tumbleweeds away from our property after a windy spell. We had a lumber pile in the back yard where my mom spied me swinging a stick at a rattlesnake when I was about six; and I remember that tarantulas were plentiful. I haven't seen a horned toad since I left there. Are they still pretty common?

Such an interesting post! Dave is downloading Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys into my MP3; LOVE that music. We used to live in Hawaii; missionaries planted mesquite to keep locals from going to ocean and bathing nude. It's called keava in Hawaii although that may not be the correct spelling.Around here we have thistles, no surprise, eh? -smile- and hawthorne which is just as beautiful and nasty as mesquite.Thank you for the visuals; quite descriptive and there is beauty in even the harshest landscape...for those with eyes to see, ears to hear.

That's really interesting, Kathleen- and you're right- whoever wrote those songs knew a thing or two about Texas, didn't they?The worst thing I can think of around here is Kudzu... this is the vine that literally makes things disappear it grows so fast! LOL (And you can't kill it either- the road crews burn it down to the ground every year, but it always comes back!)

Very prickly place where you live! The things I don't like around here the most are fire ants, which you probably have too. I also don't like sand spurs and beggar lice. But, if I could get rid of one, I would get rid of the fire ants.

You know, I have never seen a tumble weed up close. My husband has told me of them when he drove through Texas all those years, but I've never been any farther in to texas than Texarkana. Well at both airports but that doesn't count. Anyway, you always have an interesting post. I always enj0y reading.

Hi Kathleen, good to hear from you, and I appreciate your encouragement about my in-laws!

My pawpaw used to sit by his stereo and listen to Sons of the Pioneers all the time. It was turned up loud because he didn't hear well, and we could hear it playing outside.

We have stickery things here. We have this tree that resembles a mesquite but it grows taller instead of sideways. It has huge thorns on it and it grows all over the pasture behind our house. It used to be fairly contained, but now it's sending out suckers underground and I've been noticing that they are coming up in our yard. EEEK!

My mother's people are from Texas, and although we have tumble weeds in Colorado, we do NOT have your trees. And what I remember the most about spring in Texas is how my hayfever acted up with the trees bloomed.

I don't know how I missed you this last week, but I guess I did. No matter, I'm here now! Beautiful pictures, and word-pictures too. I remember the prickly pear well from when I was a kid in Florida ... ow!

Good morning, its been a little while, but I am stopping in to say hello. :) I guess you got to be tough to live in Texas! I would hate to have to deal with the tumbleweeds ( I didnt know they were stickery!)and the sand blinding me with the winds like that. We have had some bad winds here lately, but I guess I should be thankful, no sand, just rain! So much rain. I hope Mother Nature eases up on us eventually.

About Me

After years of living in town, on a street that seemed to growl at me each time I stepped outside, my dream of country living came true a few years ago. Now my dream of creating a farm and making the land productive is in the making. I am starting out small and slow, learning as I go along. Wildflowers, tulips, and daffodils are slowly taking over the untamed land. Chickens and ducks are beginning to hatch. Pumpkins and orchards are looking hopeful. The ground and the weather can be harsh and unforgiving at times, but just like an artist with a blank canvas, I will keeping working at it until I make it beautiful. When I'm not working with the land, I am busy stitching away on my "one day linen line" and other hand embroidered projects. My cup runneth over and I am truly blessed.Please stop by my other blogs....Yesteryear Embroideries for the latest stitches, and My Country Kitchen for great recipes.